


Hummingbird

by Fauxey



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Amonkhet, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-10-23 11:12:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10718235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fauxey/pseuds/Fauxey
Summary: Set directly after the 'Writing on the Wall' WotC MTG story. Nissa is struggling with her feelings for Chandra as she tries to take on the mysteries of Amonkhet alone.This has turned into a complete re-write of the Amonkhet story with Nissa/Chandra as the focus :)





	1. In The Night

The Amonkeht night was dark and oppressive. Nissa could feel heat prickling cross her skin as the suffocating air pressed at her face. She listened intently to the sounds of the night, or rather, the lack of them. Her sensitive elven ears could usually pick up noises from a great distance; the rustling of leaves on a gentle breeze, the sound of a mouse scuttling across dusty floorboards, but here she could hear nothing. The night was dead. 

She sighed quietly as she gazed up at the pitch black ceiling. To her left she could hear Jace sleeping fitfully on his small bed. He twitched and fidgeted, the heat bothering him even as he slept. On her right lay Chandra, in her bed, comatose and peaceful. Nissa smiled to herself; they could be trapped in the centre of an erupting volcano with lava and poisonous gas spewing out around them and Chandra would still sleep like a kitten, curled up into a little ball, her red hair fanned out across her pillow. Nissa supposed that because Chandra used so much fire and energy during the day, as soon as the burning sun went down that was it, the need to sleep kicked in and didn’t usually allow the pyromancer to wake up again much before late morning. The animist on the other hand was lucky to get more than a few hours a night; as soon as she closed her eyes her mind started buzzing. The energy of whichever plane she was on seeping into her tired mind, tricking her out of much needed rest. On particularly bad nights she saw glimpses of huge colourless bodies on the horizon, moving like glaciers, destroying everything in their path. 

She turned over to face Chandra’s bed. She could just about pick out Chandra’s face in the gloom, relaxed and calm. It was a stark contrast to her daytime self, always restlessly moving and fidgeting, talking and singing. Nissa had always thought of Chandra as being like a hummingbird, wings always moving at a million miles a minute, dashing from flower to flower in a mad rush that only she could explain. Whilst she studied the sleeping face of her friend in the dark, she thought back to the conversation that they had had earlier that day.

‘So… friendship?’ Chandra’s question had taken Nissa slightly by surprise. She had understood the meaning behind it, as Chandra fidgeted and refused to meet her eye. She was asking for more and Nissa knew that she wanted the same. She had always loved the fiery, impetuous woman who had crashed into her life as she herself thought she has lost everything. She paradoxically felt calmer with the firebrand beside her; the crushing thoughts of colourless devouring behemoths came far less regularly and her unease in cities and crowds was lessened when she was following Chandra. Nissa felt closer to her than she had ever felt to anyone; it was a completely different kind of connection of that to say Jace or Liliana. She knew that Chandra wanted more than just her friendship, but Nissa was afraid. She had never been one for connecting with people; her assimilation into the Gatewatch had been hard enough. How was she supposed to give the fiery human all the love and attention that she knew she deserved? Nissa turned back to face the ceiling, frustrated tears pricking her back of her eyes. She just didn’t want to let Chandra down; she deserved someone who could love with all their heart, not a broken elf from a now non-existent plane.

To her left, Jace moaned in his sleep, thrashing ineffectively at the hot air surrounding him. She sighed again. What was the point in laying there and getting upset? Nissa pushed herself up off her bed and placed her feet quietly on the floor. Gently, she padded across the room like one of the beautiful aether-leopards that she has met in Kaladesh. She winced at the memory; Chandra had come alive in Kaladesh, her home plane. Nissa had never seen her so excited and so beautiful as she had whirled round her city, Ghirapur, showing Nissa everything that she had known growing up. It had been beautiful to be a part of but equally painful; Nissa would never be able to do that for her. 

Gently Nissa pulled on her boots and grabbed for her cloak. She lightly climbed down the stairs and into the main living area. She was surprised to see Gideon’s sleeping mat empty; perfectly made just as he had left it. She frowned, why would he not have come home last night? He had mentioned the evening before that he was going to Oketra’s temple for a while, but he hadn’t said anything about staying out all night. She shook her head, silly thoughts. He was a grown man, he could make his own decisions without having to inform anyone of his movements. 

 

 

The streets of Amonkhet were still. As Nissa walked, all she could hear were the sound of her own boots on the sandy earth. During the day, two suns loomed over the plane, but Nissa was surprised to find that when she looked up she could only see one moon, bright, illuminating her path. There were no stars. 

She walked aimlessly, not sure what she could be doing constructively at this hour. She had so many burning questions that her exhausted mind couldn’t quite fathom. She knew that the threat of Nicol Bolas, the self-styled Pharoh-God, returning was imminent, but she wasn’t sure what she could do to even start to help mitigate that. Frustrated she continued to wander, kicking up dust as she went. She wished Chandra were with her; she always knew what to do and say to lessen her anxiety. Or even Liliana at this point, Nissa thought ruefully to herself - it was hard to be afraid of the night time with the regal necromancer nearby: the night was afraid of her. 

Eventually Nissa rounded a corner to see a glittering snake of water stretching out in front of her; the river Luxa. She smiled as she looked out across it; the plane might be dying and damaged, but nothing could control the beauty of a powerful river. Her smile began to fade as she neared it, however; the water itself was still and unmoving. She wrinkled her nose as a wave of putrid scent asserted her nostrils. The river was stagnant. The river, like the plane itself, was dead, or very close to it anyway.

‘Sad, isn't it little elf?’

Nissa yelped with surprise as the saccharine voice came out of the darkness. Nissa span round, trying to see who had spoken. Only the flick of a tail in the corner of Nissa’s eye gave the speaker away. Atop one of the buildings overlooking the Luxa was a huge sphinx. Nissa gasped in surprise and awe as the elegant creature stood up, its powerful lion’s body illuminated by the light of the single moon. With one deft movement it effortlessly leapt from the rooftop to the ground, landing a few metres away from Nissa. The sphinx sat down, catlike, on the ground, affixing Nissa with a piercing gaze. Nissa couldn’t look away; the sphinx was terrifying but at the same time beautiful - her face was human, but otherworldly. 

‘Yes it is a sad sight’, the sphinx continued, breaking Nissa’s gaze and looking out over the stagnant river, ‘I never thought I’d live to see the day the Luxa stopped flowing’. She looked back. ‘All alone tonight are we little elf? No fireball in armour to keep you company?’ Nissa may have imagined it, but it looked suspiciously like the sphinx had licked her beautiful lips. She took a step back.

‘You’re the sphinx Chandra and I met earlier, aren’t you?’ There was no reaction from the creature. ‘Hapatra said you couldn’t talk’, Nissa continued, ‘That you’d taken a vow of silence?’ Now the creature chucked, as it took a step towards Nissa, smiling widely.

‘Well yes, but you won’t be telling anyone about my little discretion…’ the sphinx was walking menacingly towards Nissa now, as she stumbled backwards, not taking her eyes off the creature as it moved towards her.

‘Stop,’ Nissa yelped, holding up a hand, desperately trying to draw on any power in the dead plane that might help her, ‘I don’t know what I’ve done wrong!’ She searched the leylines desperately for anything that might help, but the plane yielded nothing to her.

‘Oh wrong place, wrong time,’ purred the sphinx, ‘I mean all of you walkers will have to be dealt with eventually, instructions have been made clear. You just happen to be a lonely little wandering morsel who I can easily deal with’. The Sphinx smiled, bearing its teeth. Nissa was close enough to see that although the face of the creature was beautiful and serene, the teeth were sharp and jagged, stained and foul. The breath of the sphinx was pure decay. Nissa made one last grasp at the leylines of the land, searching for anything she could use, any scrap of power. Her panicked mind found the Luxa, sluggish and slow, but with a spark underneath. She drew at its power, desperately as the sphinx made an almighty leap towards her, filthy claws bared, rank teeth on show. With all her might, Nissa threw the energy of the Luxa at the Sphinx. It felt strange to her, unnatural, as if she had tapped into a power that wasn’t quite hers. Her usual power of drawing on the land seemed somehow twisted here, as the energy she threw didn’t manifest physically as it usually did, but instead seemed to tear through the sphinx’s mind. 

It wasn’t quite enough; the sphinx was thrown off, it’s mind erupting in a wave of blue-tinged pain as it slammed into Nissa. The surge of energy had knocked its aim, but she still felt the white hot pain of rancid teeth tearing into her shoulder. She fell backwards, with the stunned and yowling creature on top of her. She was too overwhelmed with pain to even scream as the creature lifted its leviathan paw above her, rotting claws ready to tear her limb from limb.

WOOOOSH!

A scarlet fireball slammed into the sphinx, knocking it backwards. The stench of burning fur and flesh washed over Nissa, as she heard the creature scream in agony.

‘GET THE FUCK OFF HER YOU HAIRY FUCK!’ Nissa involuntarily let out a cry of relief as she heard Chandra’s furious shout. She watched as the pyromancer let off a volley of sparks in the direction of the Sphinx, who was limping away as quickly as its damaged body could manage.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Chandra, hair ablaze, eyes glowing, hesitate, considering whether to go after the creature. She spat after it, then spun around and ran to Nissa’s side.

‘Niss, what the actual fuck, hell Niss, I was so…’ She dropped down to her knees, scooping Nissa off the floor into a sitting position. Nissa yelped with pain as Chandra jostled her wounded shoulder. ‘Oh shit. Fuck.’. The pyromancer's eyes were wide and frightened as she regarded Nissa’s shoulder. ‘I was so scared when you weren’t in your bed,’ Chandra garbled, still holding Nissa close to her armour-clad chest, ‘So I looked for your spark and found it, and followed you here, and then that fucking cat-thing was there and, fuck I just thought, shit she’s going to die…’ As she paused to draw breath Nissa lifted her good arm to Chandra’s lips to quiet her. 

‘I’m not going to die,’ she whispered through gritted teeth as the sharp pain from her shoulder began to give way to a dull pain, seeping through her body, ‘Not now you’re here’. She buried her face in Chandra’s neck, breathing in her scent of warmth and light and safety. Chandra pulled her closer, careful not to hurt her further, gently resting her chin on top of Nissa’s head.

‘I do love you, you know Chandra, so much’ Nissa managed through the pain, ‘I just… it’s just all so new, and you just deserve so much more that I can give you…’

‘Shut up.’ Sniffled Chandra; Nissa hasn’t realised she was crying, ‘You mean more to me than anything. When I thought that thing had killed you I…’ she took a shaky breath, ‘I just thought what if it was my fault. For being too forward, too weird, for freaking you out, driving you away’. 

‘Never…’ Nissa began, ‘I just…’

‘No,’ Chandra cut her off, ‘No, I won’t hear all your ‘I’m not good enough’ bullshit tonight. I fucking love you. And you say you love me. And we’re both alive. So lets just fucking talk about this in the morning. Yeah?’ 

Despite the pain and the fear, Nissa smiled. ‘Yeah, we’ll talk about it in the morning’. 

They stayed like that on the bank on the Luxa for what seemed like an immeasurable amount of time; Nissa curled up in Chandra’s warm embrace, eyes closed, slowly breathing in calmness, focusing on controlling the pain in her body. Chandra stayed alert to their surroundings, quietly using previous teaching from Nissa to conjure up a little fire elemental. 

Nissa opened one eye as Chandra gave a pleased squeak as a fully formed fire elemental darted in front of them. A tiny, blazing hummingbird. 

‘Okay bird, get help. Get Gids, or Lili. Or even Jace. I need help moving Nis… go on!’ The little bird darted off, leaving a shimming trail of heat where it had been.

‘That’s really good Chandra’, Nissa breathed, ‘You’re learning so much. I’m so proud..’ Nissa felt Chandra’s happy sigh against her cheek. One of the twin suns had just started to rise over the Luxa and was bathing them in a golden glow. 

Within minutes the tiny bird was back, leading Gideon, resplendent in his armour, the first light of the morning glinting off his chest plate. 

‘Gids!’ Chandra sounded surprised, ‘How did you get here so quickly?’ 

Gideon ignored the question, bending down to look at Nissa’s injury a little closer, his brow furrowed in concern.

‘It’s infected’, he said, his low, smooth voice hardly disguising the worry, ‘It looks like poison and it is spreading, you can see it in her veins…’ He looked at Nissa, leaning back on his haunches. Chandra had tightened her grip on the elf. ‘Nissa, were you struck with a blade, or any kind of object that could have been dipped in a poison…’

‘It was that fucking cat-thing!’ Yelped Chandra. Nissa could feel her panic rising as the air round them heated up, ‘The whatsit! It’s teeth must have been poisoned!’ 

‘Sphinx…’ Muttered Nissa.

‘Yeah that piece of shit!’ Nissa could hear the tears of frustration and fear in Chandra’s voice. She pressed herself closer to the pyromancer, doing her best to comfort her as the pain continued to dull her senses. 

‘Sphinxes are not venomous…’ Gideon sounded concerned and puzzled. Nissa heard him shift his position closer to her. ‘Nissa I’m going to lift you, okay?’ She felt his strong arms surround her and easily lift her out of Chandra’s. Suddenly Nissa was left ice cold; every inch of her freezing, even in the heat of the Amonkhet morning. She whimpered quietly and felt Chandra reaching for her good hand, their fingers interlacing. Nissa felt warmth spread up her arm, but the rest of her body stayed cold as the grave. 

The walk back to their lodgings felt like eternity. Gideon was careful to carry Nissa gently, but the waves of pain were now accompanied by nausea at every footfall. Her skin felt simultaneously icy and on fire and she was bathed in sickly sweat. Only Chandra’s presence at her side, hand clasped in her own, made her feel comforted. This is what she had felt when she had reached out to feel the plane, Nissa realised in her sickly haze. This painful, draining sensation, a nauseous sickness attacking every inch of the plane as it now attacked her.

 

 

‘Well well,’ Nissa made out the familiar scathing tone through her addled mind, ‘That is interesting…’

‘Shut the fuck up Lili.’ Came Chandra’s blunt reply. 

Nissa felt herself deposited onto a soft surface. Through her malaise she managed to open one eye and glimpsed a blurry image of her friends, all looking down at her, troubled. Even the usually stoic and uncaring Liliana had an eyebrow raised in concern. She could make out that she was back in the room at the lodgings. The other members of the Gatewatch were all talking in low, hushed voices. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying over the roaring pain in her head. She tried to speak but could only whimper; Chandra immediately dropped to her knees beside the bed, stroking Nissa’s hair. It helped the pain a little, but not enough. Nissa closed her eyes.

One by one the members of the Gatewatch left to pursue their lines of enquiry on an antidote that may help; Gideon to talk to Oketra, Jace to research local lore and Liliana… well that was her business. Only Chandra remained. 

Quietly she set about ridding herself of her armour, deftly unbuckling straps and unhooking links until she had freed herself of the ornate metalwork that had been crafted for her on Kaladesh. Wearing only her red tunic and leggings, she climbed into the small bed beside Nissa. Nissa felt warmth rush over her again and the crippling pain ease a little. She nestled into the pyromancer’s chest, nuzzling at her neck. Chandra held her close, leaning her chin on the top of her head. Nissa let her eyes close. She couldn’t fight the exhausting pain of the poison any more. She let go, drifting into fitful sleep.

She dreamt of eldrazi, crushing, ripping, destroying. She dreamt she alone stood in front of them, arms outstretched. Behind them she glimpsed a pair of horns, rising from the land, far larger than the colourless titans that haunted her. And so she stood there in her poison fuelled nightmare, arms outstretched and unafraid, protected by a tiny, fiery hummingbird by her side.


	2. Anything At All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nissa awakens from her poison-nightmare. 
> 
> Features details from the main magic story 'The Hand That Moves' & 'Trespass' (so if you haven't checked them out yet, I suggest you do!!)

Nissa wandered through the empty streets, meandering through hell.

Her fevered poison-nightmare of thrashing, crushing eldrazi continued to plague her, however her exhausted conscious had shifted, away from the horrors of the past and into those of the present.

Kefnet’s temple. Her mind whirling through flashes of her life, visions of what had been. Where was her hummingbird? Everything was so fast, loud, flashing in front of and behind her eyes. 

An angel. The one that plagued her dreams, a beautiful, warped being that was somehow entwined with her own self. ‘Be the hand that moves’. How, when she was so weak from the poison that she could barely open her eyes, let alone move her hand. ‘Be the hand that moves’, the angel was close to her, inside her mind. It was controlling her, and she was controlling Kefnet. How?

‘You may go now initiate, you have passed your trial’. The visions blurred in her mind. She could no longer tell what was real and what was the dream. Was any of this infected, seeping plane real anymore? 

She moaned, trying to stop her mind from spinning, thrashing weakly at her restraints… the sheets of her bed, twining round her limbs. Weakly she opened her eyes; she was still in the stiflingly hot bedroom at their lodgings, tangled in her own bedsheets, awash with sweat. She was alone. The room was darkened, thick blinds covering the windows, but even these couldn’t keep out the relentless glare of Amonkhet’s two burning suns, the harsh light forcing its way around the edges of the window. Nissa gazed at the ceiling, sandy dust motes drifting dully in the heavy air. She felt exhausted, drained. But she was surprised to find the nausea had gone. Slowly she pushed herself up onto her elbows; her head swam and her muscles shook where the Sphinx’s bite had torn through her flesh, but she felt alive. 

She frowned as she felt something in her hand; looking down she saw it was small, gold and shiny, like a coin. Gently she flipped it over to reveal a glittering blue stone in the centre, adorned with smaller stones either side. She recognised it as a cartouche; a symbol of the trials, a gift given to those who prove themselves worthy of the gods. This was the cartouche from the trial of knowledge, she realised, but she had only passed that trial in a fever dream. She furrowed her brow further; how had this piece of treasure ended up pressed into her palm when she hadn’t even left her bed? 

She heard footsteps on the stairs up to the room; without thinking she slipped the cartouche away into the inner folds of her dress, just as the door swung open.

Chandra’s amber eyes widened as she saw Nissa sitting up in bed. The laden tray she carried shifted dangerously as she bounded across to the bed, throwing herself down beside the elf, a relieved smile spreading across her pretty freckled face. 

‘You’re awake!’ She beamed, tipping her head to one side, her red hair falling in a tangled mess over her shoulders, ‘I was worried I’d have to drip-feed you coffee to try and bring you round… although this stuff’s pretty rubbish, I guess it’s hard to grow decent coffee somewhere so dry. Unless they import it…maybe they have a planeswalker coffee delivery service?’ she mused to herself.

Nissa smiled; she liked Chandra’s jumbled many-track mind and her habit of always thinking out loud. Nissa found people very hard to read, so complex to understand for someone who had lived alone for so long. Chandra however was refreshingly straight forward; her emotions were always written clearly on her face, her innermost thoughts tumbled out of her mouth without hesitation. 

‘Perhaps,’ Nissa agreed mildly, taking the cup of dark, bitter-smelling coffee from Chandra. She took a sip and wrinkled her nose at the taste.

‘Yeah, not great is it?’ The pyromancer looked sadly at her, picking up a piece of dry bread, ‘I can’t wait to get out of this hell hole and get back to somewhere with decent food and drink. And an ocean or something, what is the point of all this sand if it isn’t part of a beach?’ She bit down into the bread and sighed. 

Nissa shrugged, taking a piece for herself. It was dry and gritty, as though the sand of the plane had actually been baked into it. 

‘How are you feeling anyway? How’s that shoulder?’ She nodded at the bandages that covered Nissa, ‘I’ve been replacing them pretty regularly and the wound is clean enough but it was just so deep that I was worried you’d have nerve damage or something’. She looked down at the unfinished piece of bread in her hands.

Nissa flexed her arm and fingers, testing her limits. The pain was sharp, but familiar - like that of a blade stab or a fractured bone. Normal damage, nothing more. 

‘Surprisingly, I seem to be fine.’ She smiled gently at Chandra who gave a quick smile back, before focusing her attention back on her piece of bread. Nissa watched her pick at it, reducing it gradually to crumbs. ‘Chandra what’s the matter?’

‘Oh nothing, I’m good. Super great actually, so relieved you’re okay.’ She aimed another bright smile at Nissa, before dropping her gaze again. Nissa frowned. Chandra’s emotions may be easy to read, but as often was with humans, the reason behind the emotion was masked. She tried again.

‘Well something is the matter, else you wouldn’t be fretting,’ she nodded to the steadily growing pile of crumbs at Chandra’s feet, ‘the food here isn’t that bad!’ She attempted the joke but it fell flat, Chandra still fiddling and avoiding her. With a flash of understanding, Nissa figured it out. 

‘Ah, you’re worried that I forgot about telling you I loved you.’ She knew she’d hit her mark as Chandra looked up, amber eyes full of swirling nerves and deep-rooted affection. Nissa smiled at her, ‘I didn’t just say it because I was dying and you saved me, you know. I do mean it, I do love you very much. However…’ Chandra’s eyes steeled, apprehensive, ‘I do stand by what I tried to say. I think you deserve more than someone like me.’ 

Chandra rolled her eyes, allowing a grin to wash over her face. ‘You had me worried you know. Not only that you were going to die, but that you’d wake up and forget about it all. Or that you’d be like actually nah, not interested now you’re not standing between me and a would-be killer.’ She gave a light relieved laugh, like like sound of a summer breeze through a wind-chime. ‘Nissa, I know you have some weird idea that you’re not good enough or whatever,’ she made a dismissive gesture with her hand, ‘but don’t you think that should be for me to decide? I like you loads. Like love you. Obviously. And if you feel the same way about me then where’s the problem? I honestly think you’re the greatest person. Ever. So yeah.’ She looked into Nissa’s eyes, waiting eagerly for the elf to respond. 

Nissa shrugged, smiling. She tried to think of a clever way to articulate her feelings; joy, happiness… apprehension. The feeling of no longer being quite so alone. The feeling of knowing that now she was responsible for someone’s happiness as well as her own. In a flash of reckless inspiration she squeezed her eyes shut and leant in to the place where she knew Chandra’s face was. She felt their lips gently collide and her heartbeat sped up, her spine prickling, tingling. Chandra gave a little squeak of surprise, but didn’t pull away. Chandra’s lips were soft and warm, pressing eagerly against her own. Nissa gently lifted her hand and ran her fingers through Chandra’s soft, tangled hair, gently holding her head in place as they kissed. Her hair, like her skin, was hot to the touch, as if she’d just been sitting in the sun. She smelled good, like wheat fields on a summer day and gently warmed earth. 

 

The creak of the door made them both spring apart. Nissa glanced around to see Liliana standing in the doorway, resplendent in a beautiful sweeping purple dress. Her skin was so pale that it was almost translucent. There was a strange beauty in her deathly parlour, her veins visible, perfect rivulets of blue and purple in a sea of sliver skin. She raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow, her dark eyes fixing first on Nissa, then Chandra with a piercing stare. Nissa gazed back evenly, ridding her mind of any thoughts that may reflect in her expression.

‘Chandra,’ Liliana’s usually cold voice was amused, Nissa could hear the laughter struggling to break through the stern, humourless facade, ‘Chandra, I have never, in my many, many years of existence ever seen anyone look quite as guilty as you do right now.’ 

Nissa glanced over at her fiery human and also had to bite back a giggle. Chandra’s cheeks were crimson with blushing, her bright, excited eyes affixed firmly on the ground, hands writhing in her lap, foot tapping nervously on the ground. Her already messy hair was standing slightly on end where Nissa had held it. 

Liliana looked back at Nissa. ‘I’m sure our little fireball will tell me all about it when she’s feeling less… flustered’. She gave a rare grin. To an outsider, it looked like the smile of a hyena about to bear down on some unfortunate prey, but Nissa knew that Liliana was playing, teasing. Nissa also got the feeling that the graceful human knew exactly what had just happened between her and the pyromancer. ‘I suppose she’s just happy to see you alive and well.’

Nissa nodded, continuing to hold Liliana’s gaze, wondering if she could read minds like Jace. Memories of the nightmare about her warped angel and her ability to control Kefnet were beginning to seep back into her head and she could feel the cartouche pressing into her side. She trusted Liliana a close second after Chandra, but she wasn’t sure she could tell either of them yet about what had happened. If it had happened at all. 

Liliana gracefully swept to the window, her long dress whipping up the sand-dust on the floor into a frenzy. She pulled on the blind and it sprang upwards, allowing the harsh light of day to burn into the room. Nissa squinted, as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change. 

‘Fuck Lili, don’t give us any warning or anything will you?’ Complained Chandra, who had thrown up an armoured arm to shield her own eyes. Liliana ignored her, continuing her elegant tour of the tiny room. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she surveyed the tray of breakfast that Chandra had abandoned at the base of the bed.

‘Chandra, next time you attempt to make coffee please, for the love of all that is good, request that Jace or I help you.’ She picked up the coffee cup, sniffed it, before putting it hurriedly down again. ‘You always burn it, every single time. I understand that that is your forte, and I am very supportive of you, but there is a difference between ‘delicately roasted’ and ‘incinerated’’. She ended her admonition standing beside Nissa, who was still sitting upright on her bed. ‘As for you, my elven mystery…’ Liliana bent down beside her, pressing a cold hand to her forehead, ‘It seems that you have somehow managed to miraculously stop being poisoned.’ She leant back, giving Nissa a piercing, inquisitive look. 

Nissa shrugged, genuinely unsure of how to respond. Liliana nodded her head back in response; she understood Nissa’s own confusion and knew that to push the matter would be unfair.

‘It’s because she’s great!’ Chandra threw an arm around Nissa’s shoulder, still careful to avoid the bandaged wound. ‘No giant catbird is going to keep Nissa down. Plus she had the best nurse!’ Chandra gave a faux salute. Liliana rolled her eyes in mock disgust.

‘Well whilst you two were in here playing at doctors, Jace made some interesting discoveries.’ Liliana leaned back, addressing Nissa primarily, as Chandra had already heard the gist of Jace’s discoveries whilst she prepared meals in the main kitchen for herself. ‘He was able to make contact with that dissenter girl that we saw dragged away… Samut.’ Nissa nodded in acknowledgement of the name. ‘Samut informed us of a temple just outside of the Hekma, where we might make some discoveries. And we did.’ Liliana elaborated, telling Nissa about the damaged old temple dedicated to one of the three forgotten gods and the graffiti inside, labelling Bolas as a ‘trespasser’. 

Nissa let out a long, low whistle. ‘Well I suppose that confirms what we already know.’

‘That Bolas is an asshole?’ Chandra cut in.

‘Exactly.’ Liliana agreed. ‘But specifically, that he did not create this plane, it is not his. He has stolen it and somehow convinced everyone that he has always been here.’ She shook her head, her silken black hair gleaming in the sunlight. ‘Which will make things all that much more interesting when he does turn up.’

Nissa turned her head to glance out of the window. From her vantage she could just about see the statue of the giant horns, rising up into the distance. One of the twin suns perched right atop the columns, fitting perfectly into the gap. The other was balancing precariously on the tip of one horn, so very nearly aligned. The heat in the air shimmered, making the whole of the city look as though it were underwater. She breathed out slowly. If the plan truly was for Bolas to come back when the suns were aligned, they did not have long. A day at most. 

She looked back at Liliana and Chandra, both whom were following her gaze. Liliana’s expression was neutral, a blank slate. Chandra looked determined, steeling herself for a fight. Nissa’s heart dropped a little, a new feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was not afraid of the fight to come, but afraid for Chandra. She’d never felt particularly protective over anyone before, always focusing on the issues at hand, battles to be fought, but now… she had lost everything on Zendikar. She truly believed she would be alone forever. She realised she was afraid to lose this new connection, her second chance to not be alone. She couldn’t bear to see the fiery human come to harm…

‘So I mean, now that Nissa’s back with us, presumably we’re ready to crush some dragon butt.’ Chandra’s lighthearted voice cut through her fear. She looked back at her, red hair gleaming like the burnished copper of her armour, fearless and confident. Nissa shook her head to herself. Chandra was strong, she had almost singlehandedly saved her own plane of Kaladesh after all… 

‘Well I personally wouldn’t say we’re primed for crushing,’ Liliana responded, ‘But I guess four and one invalid is better than nothing.’ She stood up to leave beckoning Chandra to accompany her. ‘Well we’ll leave you to get dressed elf. Come to the kitchen when you are ready, I will gather Jace and Gideon. We have planning to do ahead of tomorrow.’

She glided out of the room, head held high as though she was balancing a crown of precious diamonds. Chandra reluctantly followed her out, dragging her feet, glancing over her shoulder and sending a cheeky wink in Nissa’s direction. Nissa smiled, her heart lifted by Chandra’s lack of concern. 

If Chandra isn’t afraid, then neither should I be, Nissa thought to herself. She tried to shake the feeling of impending doom from her senses, as she shakily pulled herself to her feet, still weak from her poisoning. As she stood she felt the cartouche slip and fall to the floor with a clatter. She reached down and picked it up, its blue gem glinting furiously in the sun. It was unmistakably real. She turned it over in her palm, but there was nothing inscribed on it or any marks to hint at how it had come to be in her hand. 

‘’Then the only explanation is, it was real.’ She said out loud. ‘I completed the trail of knowledge. I control part of Kefnet’s mind.’ It sounded ridiculous. But then everything on this bizarre plane was just that. Madness. 

And at least it gave her something to work with once the war ignited. An edge that Bolas wouldn’t be expecting. An edge that no one would be expecting.

She smiled to herself as she pulled on a clean dress. She was cautious by nature, never leaving anything to chance when she could help it. And this, controlling an enemy god on the eve of a war… well, this was the ultimate insurance plan. 

Be the hand that moves. ‘I can do anything I want,’ Nissa muttered, closing the bedroom door quietly behind her as she left. ‘Anything at all.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one was a lot of talking! I'm aiming to get some more action in the next chapter :)
> 
> Let me know what you think so far, if there's anything I should be focusing on for the next chapter!


	3. The Pool

‘Look, I honestly don’t think that that is a good idea. At all.’ Jace tapped an annoyed foot on the ground, squaring up to Gideon. The other man stood at least two feet taller than him, and was a great deal bulkier. 

Gideon laughed, ‘Well I don’t see you coming up with anything better, Mage. I believe an all out attack strategy will be the last thing Bolas is expecting, we need the element of surprise!’

‘How is running at him head on surprising in any way?’ Jace poked Gideon ineffectively in the chest, ‘Not everything can be killed by you punching it!’

Nissa leaned back in her chair as the two men bickered. The sunlight shining through the open window was hot and unrelenting and she felt tired. Her nightmares had been particularly bad last night; the Emrakul angel wrapping her tentacles deeper into Nissa’s sleeping mind. In fact it had been so bad that she had cried herself awake as the dream angel had crushed down on her throat. In the darkness, Nissa had sobbed quietly, until she felt the warmth of Chandra quietly slip in to her bed, curling up at her back and wrapping a protective arm around her. After that she slept more soundly, dreaming only of a quiet forest glade filled with little red birds flitting from plant to plant. 

‘For the last time Gideon, I am not putting the whole of the Gatewatch at risk by charging in unprepared, regardless of how good a battle-strategy you think you have!’ Jace’s frustrated voice sounded distant to Nissa, the heat of the plane dulling her senses. She looked over to her left. Chandra was slumped back in her own chair, yawning widely at the ceiling and fiddling with her copper hair, twisting a piece of it round her finger. Past her, Liliana was gazing intently into the middle-distance, wordlessly muttering at something Nissa couldn’t quiet see. Probably one of her hidden spooks, Nissa reasoned. 

‘I’m not saying we all have to attack with weapons,’ Gideon roared at Jace, ‘Chandra can give him a blast of flame, you can talk at him, whatever you like!’ Nissa groaned to herself. This was the problem with working as a team, everyone thought they knew best - and Jace and Gideon were both brilliant leaders, but they were just too stubborn to ever back down from the other. Silently she got to her feet.

‘You okay Niss?’ Chandra looked up at her, concern in her liquid-amber eyes. Nissa gave her a gentle smile and lightly ran a finger over the pyromancer’s cheekbone as Gideon and Jace squabbled on in the background.

‘Yes, fine. Just need a little air. And space.’ She glanced over at the men who were now chest-to-chest shouting at one another. 

‘Want some company?’ Chandra tipped her head to one side, ‘Or like actual legit space. Away from everyone?’ 

Nissa smiled, sensing Chandra’s uncertainty. ‘Away from everyone except you. You’re welcome always.’ 

Chandra beamed up at Nissa and, as quietly as her armoured boots would allow, tiptoed after the delicate elf. Neither Jace nor Gideon saw them go, too caught up in their own debate, however Lili’s eyes flickered briefly in their direction, before setting back on her invisible spectre. 

 

It was another stiflingly hot Amonkhet day. Nissa could feel the suns beating down on her skin, the sweat prickling at her back. She glanced over at Chandra, who grinned at her. Resplendent in full filigree golden armour and red under-sari, Chandra didn’t look at all phased by the crippling heat. In fact she glowed, ripples in the air rising from her skin as she sashayed through the streets, radiating positivity and yet more heat. Nissa smiled at her. Chandra’s positivity had no doubt sprung from Nissa’s affirmation of her feelings towards her, plus, she supposed, the clumsy kiss that she had landed on Chandra’s lips earlier that day. 

‘So what do you fancy doing?’ Chandra span round to look at Nissa, the permanent grin she currently wore showing off her pearly white teeth. ‘I’m starving, obviously, because none of the other guys seem to know how to shop for decent food. So yeah, if you fancy lunch, that would be great. Or if not, that is also great. Whatever you want really!’ 

Nissa nodded in agreement; Chandra had a point. Other than the firey Kaladeshi, none of the others were particularly interested in something so mundane as eating. Nissa was almost certain that Liliana didn’t eat at all. She herself loved to grow her own fruit and vegetables whenever possible, but that just didn’t seem viable in the dusty earth of Amonkhet. 

They walked side by side in comfortable silence down the narrow streets, Nissa walking close to the buildings, sheltering as best she could in their shadows, relishing every brief second she was able to escape from the sweltering suns above. All around them, young initiates were busy training; children as young as toddlers wielding wooden sparring swords and lances, the older children confidently sporting their metal counterparts. They paid little attention to the two planeswalkers in their midst, so focused on their practice battles.

Chandra caught Nissa’s frown, as she watched a small girl forced to the ground by a slightly older boy with a wooden spear. Lightly, the pyromancer slipped her arm around Nissa’s waist, guiding her gently away. 

‘I know it doesn’t make much sense to have kids that young fighting,’ Chandra acknowledged as the pair rounded the corner, ‘But I guess it’s just a culture thing. Like on Kaladesh we’d have tiny little kids using hammers and blowtorches and that, following in their parents footsteps building stuff…’ She shook her head sadly, ‘I mean building isn’t the same as fighting. Opposite I guess.’ 

Chandra made a beeline for a small cart on the next street corner. It was manned by a lanky youth whose right arm was bandaged up in a sling. He looked surly and downcast, ladling something out of a pot for the other initiates who came to him, as if manning the cart was a punishment for doing something wrong.

‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’ He asked abruptly, as Nissa approached the cart, ‘And your ears too. They’re the wrong shape.’ His eyes narrowed as he took in the delicate points of Nissa’s eleven ears and her brilliant green eyes. 

‘What’s wrong with your entire face you little fuck.’ Chandra snarled, standing at Nissa’s shoulder, her hair beginning to smoulder as she affixed the youth with her coldest stare. 

‘Hey take it easy grandma,’ the boy sneered, ladling pots of what looked suspiciously like wet clay into bowls for them, ‘Not my fault if your friend here is weird looking.’ 

‘WHAT DID YOU CALL ME…’ Nissa grabbed Chandra’s arm with one hand, pulling her away, balancing the two bowls with the other.

‘Thank you. How much do we owe you?’ She panted with the effort of dragging the now smoking Chandra back.

‘Food is free here crackpot, orders of the God-Pharaoh’ the youth laughed cruelly, ‘You two just crawled out of a tomb or something? Sure looks like it!’

Nissa had to use all of her strength to drag Chandra away from the cackling boy. He may be unfriendly and could definitely use a lesson in manners, but Nissa wanted to keep a low profile and having the pyromancer set the street on fire would be very counter-intuitive to that. 

‘Fucking little shitbag,’ Chandra growled to herself as they walked away, ‘This food looks fucking awful too. Fuck this place.’ She took a large spoonful of the gruel and immediately grimaced, looking as though she wanted to spit out her mouthful into the street. After a glance at Nissa she resignedly swallowed the grey sludge. 

Nissa sniffed lightly at the food and sighed. She handed her still-full bowl to the next young child she passed who barely even acknowledged her, as he shovelled the gruel into his mouth, rushing back to his group of fighting-partners. Chandra threw hers in a gutter. 

‘Sorry that kid was such a dick to you,’ Chandra said softly, looking at her boots as they walked, ‘I don’t think you’re weird looking. I think you’re gorgeous. I love your eyes and your ears are totally cute.’ As she spoke, she leaned in and dropped a light kiss on the tip of Nissa’s ear. Nissa giggled, the touch sending a little tingle down her spine. 

‘It’s fine Chandra,’ Nissa shrugged, smiling back at her, ‘It makes sense for him to be a bit taken aback, after all, he will never have laid eyes on an elf before. And although it was much appreciated, you don’t need to jump in and defend me you know, I can look after myself.’ 

Chandra blushed, ‘I know you can. I guess I just want to protect you and that. I don’t want anyone to be mean to you…’

Nissa paused at a shaded spot under a building. There was a small bench pressed up against a wall, broken wooden swords scatted around, as if earlier it had been the site of an incredibly intense make-believe war. She sat down upon it, enjoying the relative coolness the shade had to offer. She patted the bench beside her, motioning for Chandra to sit down. 

‘I have been an outcast almost all my life, I’m no stranger to people ‘being mean’ as you put it.’ Nissa looked out over the street, feeling comforted as the pyromancer sat down close beside her, their legs touching. ‘For example, let me tell you how I got my name.’ 

She leant back against the cold stone of the wall, staring at anther group of children play-fighting in the distance. ‘I was born to an elf tribe called the Jorga… you know that much right?’ Chandra nodded, gazing intently at Nissa’s face in profile. ‘My mother told me that when I was small everyone always said how beautiful I was, friendly, caring, a perfect child. I had a different name then, a traditional Jorga name. As I grew, however, I started to become more distant…’ She paused, choosing her words carefully, ‘I began to connect with the plane, talking to the trees, the earth, the streams. I began to completely withdraw from my society, preferring to talk to the land.’

Nissa closed her eyes, remembering. She felt Chandra shift a little closer beside her, listening intently. ‘The tribe started to mistrust me, not understanding why I spent so much time alone, talking to the plane - or to myself, which is what they saw.’ She shook her head sadly, ‘They started to call me things behind my back. It is tradition for Jorga girls to be named after plants, flowers, trees, any natural element - so they started the call me ‘Narcissus’, after the Narcissus flower.’

‘Okay,’ Chandra nodded, ‘But that doesn’t sound too bad… to be named after a flower. Are they poisonous or something?’ 

Nissa smiled, ‘No, nothing like that. The flowers themselves are quite beautiful, they look like yellow trumpets. It’s the meaning behind their name that was the cruel part. Legend has it that Narcissus was a man who had been blessed to be truly handsome, however he was so vain that he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, spending all day alone talking to it… himself. He became so obsessed with his image in the pool that he cut himself off completely from his friends and his family. Eventually he went completely mad and fell into the water trying to be closer his own reflection.’ She sighed, still looking out over the street. ‘He drowned. But no one noticed, because they’d all since moved on.’ 

A few moments of silence passed. Nissa felt strangely light, as if something that she had been carrying for a long time had lifted.

‘So…’ Chandra broke the silence, ‘So they basically thought that you were cutting them out on purpose? Being selfish?’

‘Well, that and they were sure I was going mad, talking to myself.’ Nissa laughed.

‘But…’ Chandra’s voice was sombre, ‘You weren’t going mad were you. You were just a kid with a gift.’ 

Nissa shrugged. ‘Chandra, you of all people know that people can be cruel to those with gifts they don’t understand. It’s fine anyway, I moved past it. Although I kept the name… Shortened to Nissa though,’ She smiled, ‘less of a mouthful.’ 

‘Do you remember your original name?’ Chandra asked, intrigued. 

Nissa shook her head, ‘I was so young when it all started, and Nissa just seemed to suit me.’

‘Well I think its a great name. And I think you are great and not a bit like that guy from the story!’ Chandra put an arm around Nissa’s shoulder and squeezed gently, ‘Also thanks for sharing that… I know it must be really personal for you.’

‘I want you to know… everything about me. So you can make your own decision about whether you want to be with me.’ Chandra rolled her eyes skyward at Nissa’s words and got up from the bench, pulling Nissa with her. Nissa paused, knowing there was more she needed to say.

‘Yeah, I am pretty sure you’d have to do far worse than have a cruel nickname to make me not want to be with you.’ Chandra smiled at Nissa, one eyebrow raised. Nissa smiled back, although slightly more guarded. 

There were definitely things worse than a cruel nickname, Nissa thought as she walked forward at Chandra’s side. She could feel the thoughts bubbling up inside her, even as she forced them down into the deepest depths of her mind. She bowed her spinning head to the burning sunlight; she wasn’t ready to share those yet. 

 

‘Uuugh, I’m hungry, I’m tired, I’ve got sand literally everywhere…’ Chandra moaned as they reached the front door of their lodgings. The suns were burning low in the sky and the acuteness of the heat was easing off. They’d both made the decision to stay out as long as possible. The prospect of imminently meeting with Nicol Bolas had began to settle upon them both, causing Nissa to grow ever more quiet and pre-occupied with her swirling mess of thoughts, whilst having the adverse affect on Chandra, who fidgeted and chattered, like a little bird beating its wings nervously against the bars of its cage. Neither of them had relished the idea of having their foreboding amplified by Jace and Gideon, who were no doubt even more on edge. 

‘WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?!’ Gideon’s voice hit them like a roll of thunder as they entered the house. Nissa reflexively stood squarely up to him as Chandra quaked slightly at her shoulder.

‘Preparing, Gideon,’ She said in a clear voice, keeping firm eye contact with him, as she would with a wild boar or great bear. Jace and Liliana watched on with respective concern and relish. ‘We were mapping the streets of the city, making sure we knew the districts, secure places, high ground.’ She felt reckless as she lied, annoyed that she and Chandra were being accused, when all the others ever seemed to do was argue. ‘I’d have thought that a great military leader such as yourself would have had that higher on his priority list.’ She took a taunting step towards him, feeling slightly dizzy from the heat. ‘Or are we just some scared little soldier boy now, with no plan and no backbone?’ The words that were not quite hers spilled from her mouth, uncontrollable and surprising even to herself. Poke the bear. Be the hand that moves. 

Gideon glared at her with a suppressed rage so fierce that Nissa was surprised it didn’t rip through his skin. She smiled back, teeth bared, challenging him, daring him to make a move. Why was she being like this? They were on the same team after all. Gideon muttered something about ‘Oketra’ at Jace, before crashing over to the door that they had just entered by. He threw it open, almost ripping it from its hinges in his fury. She couldn’t help herself, she raced after him. 

‘Nissa? Nissa!!’ She could hear Chandra’s cries receding behind her as she followed the huge human, every one of his steps making up three of hers. 

Nissa raced after Gideon. He hadn't seen her, so caught up in his own anger. Her addled brain was trying to tell her something, get a message through to her, but she ignored it. This plane was bringing out the worst in all of them, the thought crept into her head, it's riling Gideon up, it’s making me crazy. 

They both charged through the now slowing city, the setting suns dyeing the sky blood red. The fighting children were gone from the streets, only pieces of splintered wooden swords and spears remained to hint that the children had even been there at all. It was at this time in the evenings that the shuffling mummies appeared, carrying laundry and fresh equipment from building to building, unseeing and unfeeling.

Gideon’s pace didn’t slow down until he rounded a street corner and Oketra’s temple spilled out in front of him. From her vantage point a little way back, Nissa watched the huge man climb the steps of the temple, two at a time, and disappear inside. She paused, breathing heavily after her exertion. The temple-front looked empty enough, but the steps were exposed, and Nissa didn’t fancy walking in on an already enraged Gideon in his place of safety.

She breathed out slowly. What had overcome her? She always did her best to avoid confrontation and would never deliberately try and rile an ally. And yet… it had felt so satisfying to do so. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against a cool stone wall. She felt like she was going mad. 

She began to walk, almost aimlessly, drawn toward something she couldn’t quite decipher. She focused on her feet, not paying much attention to her surroundings. Her deer-hide boots kicked up little clouds of sand as she went, and she could feel the coolness of the late evening washing over her sunburnt skin. Tendrils of dry, straw like hair hung down around her face. It felt as though the plane was draining her, as it in turn had been drained of life. She kept walking. How could she go back to the house now, without Gideon who she’d practically chased out? What would Chandra think of her outburst? She felt hot tears of frustration prickling at the backs of her eyes. She should have told her the whole truth earlier when she had the chance.

‘Uh… miss?’ Nissa looked up, startled. A dark eyed girl stood in front of her. She couldn’t have been older than twelve or so, but she had the unmistakable cartouche of the Trial of knowledge hanging around her neck. Exactly the same as Nissa’s own cartouche. ‘Um, your presence has been requested at the temple of Kefnet, I have been sent to escort you there now.’ The girl spoke quietly, almost nervously, but with a calming softness that drew Nissa in. 

The girl turned away from Nissa and walked forward. The elf followed her, suspending all the many misgivings that were spiralling in her mind. It didn’t take long for them to reach the temple. 

Inside, candles were burning low in their mountings on the wall. In the centre of the ante-chamber, was a pool of water, as Nissa recalled from her dream. The stone of the chamber was cool and the air was several degrees colder than outside. It felt tomb-like. Nissa breathed in the air, feeling it’s calming effect on her parched throat and lungs. She walked to the edge of the pool, dropping to her knees. Looking back at her she saw a familiar face. Wide, jade green eyes stared up at her, the unmistakable markings on her elven face, her long hair usually neatly braided was flyaway, frazzled by the heat. She tipped her head to one side to see the tips of her pointed ears. The huge warped wings that bled out from her shoulder blades behind her. The mess of latticed scarring that covered one of her cheeks and ran down her throat. The third arm with twisted hooked claw that sprouted from the top of her left shoulder. The tentacles that sprouted where her right hand should have been. 

‘Ah Nissa, so good to see you.’ The voice was pure poison. ‘Or should I say Emrakul? I’m never quite sure what to call you these days?’

Nissa looked up into the face of Nicol Bolas, sitting on Kefnet’s throne. Kefnet himself was standing beside Bolas, looking out into the middle distance, unfocused.

She stood up, staring into the eyes of the gargantuan dragon before her.

‘Miss Revane, Emrakul,’ he began, affixing Nissa with a piecing stare, leaning forward until she could smell the decay of his foul breath, ‘I have a proposition to make with you. But first, I must ask, to whom am I speaking?’

Nissa breathed in the stench that emanated from the dragon’s mouth. She mentally released all that she had kept bottled for so long, feeling the reckless freedom wash over her.

‘Emrakul’, she replied, ‘At your service.’


	4. Aligned

Nissa stood still, eye to eye with the gargantuan dragon. In front for her, at her feet, her false Eldrazi reflection showed in the mirror-like pool of water. She blinked and the pool of water once again showed Nissa as she was, no latticed wings or debilitating scarring. Those were only in her head. 

The dragon shifted uncomfortably in the large temple chamber; high vaulted ceilings and wide colonnaded space not anywhere near big enough to contain his massive girth. He bared his teeth at the elf waiting silently before him. 

‘I’m surprised you’re still here Eldrazi,’ the dragon spoke lazily, uncaring. ’After seeing you and the pyromancer asking questions I instructed the Viziers to get rid of the planeswalker pests in any way possible.’ He leaned back, inspecting one sword-like claw. ‘I guess that Vizier of poisons came closest. And really, it did have the best possible outcome. Without you fevered out of your mind on Sphinx-hybrid venom, I’d never have known you and the elf had… teamed up, shall we say, Emrakul.’ 

Nissa nodded, her mouth staying firmly shut. She was in control, but her mind was not always her own, and she didn’t know how her other half, the Eldrazi half, would react to Bolas. She didn’t want to get herself killed at this stage ideally, nether did she want the dragon to get suspicious. She needed him to believe she was wholly Emrakul. 

Bolas continued, ‘I had suspected as much beforehand, but it became clear to me when you infected Kefnet during your trial of knowledge that you were more than you appeared. The pool of truth shows your true self.’ 

Nissa glanced down. The image she now saw of herself was blurry, rippled, sometimes eldrazi, sometimes elf. Mostly a combination of the two, swirling in the still water. She drew in a breath. Bolas knew about her connection to Kefnet, so that was no longer any kind of insurance. She glanced quickly at the god; who was still standing motionless, staring into the middle distance, seeing everything and nothing all at once. 

‘How did I even take part in the trial, if I was in my room the whole time?’ Her question seemed mundane, even as she said it, but she had to know what had happened - what was real and what was imaginary in this backwards place. Her voice echoed around the chamber for a few seconds before Bolas responded with a shrug. He looked across at Kefnet, who sprang to life like a mechanical doll.

‘You only need your mind for the trial of knowledge,’ he said automatically, ‘there whereabouts of your physical being is irrelevant.’ He then stilled, his gaze dropping back out of focus. 

‘Well there you have it,’ Bolas eyed Nissa maliciously, ‘Now my turn to ask you a question. Last time I heard about you, you were trapped on Innistrad, disgusting hellhole that it is.’ He pulled his mouth back into a hideous smile. Nissa forced a smile of agreement. ‘So Emrakul, my question is, how did you escape the prison that our ‘friends’ in the gatewatch forced you into? And how did you come to control the elf?’

Nissa frowned, trying to word what she knew as best she could. Her affliction went further back than her run in with the Eldrazi on Innistrad. She had first melded minds with the Eldrazi back on Zendikar. Her mind had always been connected to her plane, the mana of her home world flowing though her. When the Eldrazi had began poisoning Zendikar, she had become yet another unfortunate casualty, her mind polluted and sickened by the thrashing, mutating monsters that ravaged and tore and destroyed. Unlike the other inhabitants of Zendikar, however, Nissa had used the sickness to her advantage, using the poison that was trying to destroy her to insulate her against further damage. That had served her well, as she controlled the mutation inside herself, using it to her advantage. It was on Innistrad where Emrakul had sensed the kindred power inside Nissa and had reached out to implant some of herself in the already poisoned elf. And so their unlikely bond had been formed, Nissa drawing on Emrakul’s power at times of need and Emrakul laying dormant in Nissa’s mind. Existing, but only just, occasionally making her feelings heard when Nissa dropped her guard, living out her existence in Nissa’s dreams. 

‘The elf was weak and so I took her mind,’ Nissa said, hoping against hope that she sounded convincing.

Bolas raised a scaly eyebrow ‘Of all the planeswalking pests, I would say that the elf was least weak…’

Nissa could feel herself starting to panic, ‘True. But I could have taken any of them. Why not take the best of a weak bunch?’ She paused, waiting desperately for his reaction.

‘A truer word has never been spoken.’ Nissa realised she had been holding her breath and let it out slowly at his confirmation. Awkwardly, the dragon moved from his sitting position to crouching on all fours, his curved horns inches away from scraping the ceiling. He gave a low growl of annoyance deep in his throat. ‘We need to get out of here. The hours are upon us and I must be atop my throne.’

‘What happens?’ Nissa burst out, realising that she had completely forgotten about the ominous ‘hours’ in the face of meeting the dragon himself. 

‘The suns align and I am able to absorb the power of this world, inhabitants and all.’ He gazed at Nissa conspiratorially, ‘This is why I have them weed out their own weak. I have no room for weakness.’ Again he bared his teeth in a horrible smile, ‘But I need your help to harness the power. I have been working with others on a way to harness energy; Tezzeret, Sorin… but Eldrazi have a knack that none of them had. I need you to drain the plane and siphon the energy to me. In return, you get free run of this plane and as much the leftover energy as you can use.’

He turned his back, doing his best to slink out of the chamber, encumbered at every turn by walls and columns. In his frustration he began to knock them down and cracks began appearing in the temple walls and ceiling.

‘Come Emrakul,’ he called back to her, ‘Join me and see what we can do. I believe we will make the perfect alliance. But first, we must ready for a fight. I imagine the remainder of the gatewatch will do their best to make things difficult.’ 

Nissa steeled herself. He just needed to keep believing she was on his side, believing she was Emrakul. But equally she couldn’t let him hurt the gatewatch. She couldn’t let him hurt Chandra. She gazed one last time into the pool of knowledge. Staring back at her was a wide-eyed, frightened elf. 

 

 

‘Look I don’t know where’s she’s gone okay? I wish I freaking did because then I’d be there with her damnit!’ Chandra paced up and down the kitchen area, feeling like a caged animal. She’d watched as Nissa had run after Gideon, a strange look in her eye. Chandra had been sure she would come back after she’d calmed down, as Nissa wasn’t one for starting fights, but it had been hours and she hadn’t come back yet. Neither had Gideon. ‘If he’s hurt her, I’m gonna kick him in the fucking…’

‘Chandra!’ Liliana slammed a pale hand down on the wooden table, making both Chandra and Jace jump, ‘As much as it pains me to say it, Gideon is not at fault here, at least not as far as Nissa is concerned. He ran off. Then she ran off after him. They probably aren’t even together right now. Beefslab likes to be alone when he is pissed off and Nissa likes trees. God knows where she is going to find a tree in this place, but it sure won’t anywhere near him. So no kicking other members of this stupid… team. Do you understand?’

Chandra nodded, looking at the ground feeling ashamed and helpless. She desperately wanted to find Nissa, but didn’t know if Nissa even wanted to be found. She knew the elf liked her own space and she didn’t want to annoy her by encroaching…. but this didn’t seem like Nissa’s normal ‘needing space’. Chandra slumped down into a chair, cradling her head in her hands. Usually Gideon would have answers, a good plan. But he’d gone too. She groaned.

‘Alright alright, it’s not that bad.’ Jace stood up. ‘I mean… I guess it is pretty bad.’

‘I’d say it was a fucking disaster darling, but whatever semantics make you feel better about the situation.’ Liliana popped a dark grape into her mouth, deliberately not looking at Jace. 

‘Look can we not do this now…’ Liliana waved Jace away as he spoke. She also rose to her feet, elegant and purposeful, like a swan taking off from water. 

‘Chandra sweetheart, get up,’ Liliana pulled Chandra up by the arm, ‘I know you’re upset about Nissa, but she is a strong woman, she will be fine and you’ll be back to kissing in the sunset before you know it.’ She gave Chandra a devious smile, and Chandra felt herself blushing uncontrollably. Damnit, of course Liliana knew, she knew everything.

‘Wait…’ Jace looked at Chandra, then Liliana confused, ‘Chandra… kissing Nissa?’

‘Oh Jace darling,’ said Liliana with mock exasperation as she swept past him towards the door, ‘do try and keep up with at least some of the gatewatch affairs. God knows you have to keep up with something, because it definitely isn’t your Guildpact work…’ 

Chandra smiled ruefully at Jace, who rolled his eyes and followed Liliana out. The heat was suffocating, but it didn’t bother Chandra in the slightest. She could see the heat ripples coming off her armour and could feel it as she breathed in, but to her, it was just warm air. She glanced at Jace and Liliana. Liliana’s fair skin was practically glowing in the bright light; she held a dark silk parasol in one hand to shield her from the worst of the suns’ glare and in her other she fluttered a black fan to keep cool. She didn’t seem too bothered by her surroundings… although Liliana seemed to have long ago mastered the art of not appearing to be bothered about anything. Jace on the other hand was really struggling. Chandra could see rivulets of sweat forming on his forehead, causing his hair to stick to his face. He removed his cloak, folding it under one arm. He proceeded to unbutton the top few buttons of his shirt in an attempt to cool down.

‘Just take the whole thing off,’ said Liliana carelessly, watching the mage fumbling with the shirt in the sweltering heat, ‘I’ve seen it all before and I’m sure Chandra won’t mind…’ Jace glared at her, abandoning his fight with the shirt and heading into the shade of a nearby building. 

‘Okay, so now we’re out here in this furnace, what do you propose we do Lili?’ He threw up his hands in frustration. ‘The hours are upon us, whatever that actually means, we’ve lost Gids, we’ve lost Nissa, we’ve got no plan, nothing. We might as well abandon the whole thing and just planeswalk out of here, because we have absolutely no chance…’

‘We are NOT leaving Nissa here,’ Chandra yelled, stomping her boot on the dusty ground, ‘Or Gids for that matter. We are supposed to be a TEAM but we’re acting like a pretty shit one at the moment.’ She felt uncontrollable, frustrated tears burning at her throat and eyes. She bit them back. She couldn’t believe everything was falling apart so badly. 

Liliana turned round, slipping her fan into her belt. She placed her now free hand on Chandra’s cheek. It was freezing cold; oddly refreshing and calming at the same time. ‘Look sweetheart, I know you are worried about Nissa and I know you like to think of the gatewatch as your family, so you’re worried about us.’ Chandra nodded, downcast. ‘But you have to understand that sometimes families fight, usually at the most inopportune of moments, but in the end they always have each others backs.’ Chandra nodded as Jace looked on impassively. Liliana continued, ‘We will find Nissa, I promise. Jace and I will make it happen. And Gids too, because everyone knows every team needs a man-hunk to distract people whilst the rest of us do the real work.’ Jace snorted in the background as Chandra nodded, swiping away a rogue tear that had escaped her eye. ‘So stop worrying. Lets go get your girl back, find our missing man-candy and sort out this damn dragon!’

Liliana spun on her heel and began walking with purpose towards the statue of the horns in the distance. Chandra followed her closely, comforted by her sweet perfume and general air of knowing what she was doing. Jace brought up the rear, sweating and stumbling, cursing at the plane, the suns, Nicol Bolas and planeswalking in general. 

 

 

The closer that the three planeswalkers got to the statue of the horns, the more people there seemed to be in the streets, all of them walking in the same direction. Chandra watched with fascination as tiny children, who could barely even walk yet, stumbled towards the horns, as if pulled by some magnetic force. Beside her, a little girl stumbled and fell onto the ground. In Kaladesh, a child of the same age falling over would have elicited howling and screeching until a concerned parent came to tend to it, however the small Amonkhetian girl simply pulled herself to her feet and continued walking, knees scraped and bleeding. After a few minutes, the little girl fell again, this time also breaking open the skin of her hands. Instinctively, Chandra reached down and scooped up the child, swinging her round and carrying her securely on her hip, like she would a sparring dummy or heavy bag of armour. The child barely acknowledged that she had been lifted, her eyes firmly fixed on the horns in the distance, her little hands unconsciously lacing themselves into Chandra’s ornate armour for stability. 

‘Chandra put it down, I already said you can’t have a pet.’ Liliana gave her a withering look when she saw the Pyromancer carrying the child. Chandra stuck her tongue out at her, making no moves to release the little girl. Liliana shook her head, but looked concerned as the child began pointing towards the horns, kicking Chandra’s ribs in attempt to make her move faster.

‘Hey!’ Chandra growled, jostling the child on her hip to try and get her to stop kicking, ‘You’re lucky I'm wearing chain armour you little bandar!’ The girl fidgeted and wriggled, making little keening noises and pointing more insistently towards the Temple of the God-Pharoah. ‘Yeah I know I know, that’s where I’m taking you if you’d stop struggling! Why d’ya want to get there so badly anyway?’

The girl let out another cry, making a wild grab for Chandra’s red hair. She managed to grab a clump in her little fist and pulled hard, causing Chandra to yelp and her eyes to water. Liliana rolled her dark eyes.

‘If only you were this patient all the time little fireball,’ she nodded at the child who was now clawing at Chandra, a fist full of her hair in one hand, ‘If this was anyone else they’d be mostly charred barbecue by now.’ 

‘Yeah well,’ Chandra replied through gritted teeth, fending off the child’s tiny hand with her spare arm, ‘Unlike Bolas and the Eldrazi and all these other assholes, I don’t believe in harming kids. In fact…’ She swung the child around so she was on her other hip, forcing her to release her hair, ‘I think we should be all doing everything we can to look after them. Never know who kids can grow up to be. They’re the future after all.’ 

Liliana raised a perfect eyebrow. ‘How Kaladeshian of you. Always look to the bigger, better future. I hate kids. Always have, always will. They’ll all just die eventually anyway.’ Chandra rolled her eyes. Liliana smiled sweetly at her.

‘Okay break it up ladies, you’re both great mother figures,’ Jace pushed past them both, ‘Have you fucking seen this?’ 

‘Language Jace,’ Admonished Chandra, covering one of the child’s ears, ‘She's only little, she’s not old enough to… OH SHITTING FUCK.’ Chandra’s mouth fell open at the sight ahead of her. The road to the Temple of the God-Pharaoh was packed with people, all jostling to get closer to the huge building. The suns were aligned directly above, making the air excruciatingly hot, heat waves dancing above the throng of people. The five gods were all stood at the base on the temple, each leant down on one knee. To her surprise, Chandra spotted Gideon kneeling beside Oketra, right at the front of the crowd.

‘GID…’ She began before Jace slapped a hand across her mouth, cutting her off.

‘Shush, don’t draw attention to us!’ He muttered, ‘Gideon is fine, he knows what he’s doing.’

Chandra doubted that very much, but she kept quiet nonetheless.

Although there were thousands of people all crammed into a small space, no one was talking, the area was quiet, save for the shuffling of thousands of feet. In her arms, the little girl’s thrashing had become so fierce that she had dislodged herself from Chandra's hold, so reluctantly Chandra set her down. Without hesitation the girl threw herself forward into the crowd, toddling as fast as she could towards the temple.

‘Wait!! Wait you’ll get squished….’ Chandra lost sight of her in the crowd. She felt guilty for not holding onto her more tightly, but she could see hundreds of children of the same age in the crowd, safe and mesmerised, like the rest. She’d be fine, she hoped. 

Chandra joined Liliana and Jace a little way back, watching the procession of people being drawn to the temple. All of the Amonkhetians had mesmerised looks on their faces, determined and unafraid.

‘Like lambs to the slaughter.’ Muttered Liliana. 

Suddenly a hush fell over the crowds, as everyone simultaneously fell still. Chandra felt her muscles involuntarily tighten as she instinctively braced herself. 

From the back of the temple came the steady sound of heavy footfalls, climbing. The anticipation in the streets around the temple was palpable; Chandra could feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Her heart was racing. She scanned the crowd furiously for any sign of Nissa, but couldn’t see the willowy elf anywhere. 

From behind the temple, a set of horns began to appear, huge and imposing, rising up towards the dual suns in the sky. Following the horns came the head of the huge dragon, then the body, his scales glittering furiously in the heat, then legs ending in gleaming sword-like talons. He climbed into the huge throne, his tail complete with barbed spikes wrapping around the building. He spread his wings, casting what seemed like an endless shadow over the congregation. 

‘IT IS TIME FOR THE HOURS.’ His voice seemed to be everywhere at once. Chandra watched as the whole city dropped to its knees at his words. She watched speechless before Jace grabbed her by the arm, pulling her down too, motioning for her to copy everyone else, on their knees, heads bowed. She did as she was told, closing her eyes, breathing in, trying to steady her racing heart. 

Unable to keep her curiosity contained, she slowly raised her head, opening one eye. Her whole body went cold, her breath catching in her throat as her eyes took in what was before her.

Standing beside Bolas in a beautiful dress made of metal woven into dragon scale-like plates was Nissa. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders and her feet were bare. On her head was a metal crown, from which rose two horns, mirroring those of Bolas himself. She held her head high, the horns glinting in the light, as she surveyed the crowd.

‘YOUR GOD-PHARAOH HAS RETURNED, YOU WILL ALL BE JUDGED FOR WORTH AND VALUE’ Bolas continued, ‘I HAVE REQUESTED HELP IN THIS VERY SPECIAL MATTER.’ 

At this, Chandra saw Nissa take a step forward, her eyes fixed on a point in the middle distance somewhere above the crowd. She could feel Jace’s firm grasp on her shoulder, preventing her from jumping up. 

‘HELP FROM MY GOOD FRIEND EMRAKUL.’

 

 

Nissa dropped to her knees. This was it. She could feel her heart racing in her chest as the crowd yawned out in front of her, as far as the eye could see. The metal crown of horns felt heavy on her head and the dress of dragon-scales rubbed uncomfortably on her skin. She breathed in and released her mind. She watched her own body collapse to the ground as she left it, rising up into the sky in the shape of the giant Eldrazi horror that had last been seen on Innistrad. She could see out of her single eye the stunned faces of the crowd, and in it she spotted Chandra, her eyes wide with horror and fear. Nissa felt guilty; she didn’t want to frighten Chandra, but this had to be done. She could feel the power coursing through her body, the urge to assimilate the crowd, to drain the plane. She fought it with every inch of her being. 

‘I WILL JUDGE YOUR WORTH.’ Bolas spoke to the stunned crowd, ‘AND EMRAKUL WILL REMOVE THE REST. AND I JUDGE NONE OF YOU WORTHY.’


	5. Trust

From her vantage high above the crowd, Nissa could see everything. She watched the reactions of the horrified people of Amonkhet as they took in the monstrosity before them; there was fear, disgust, horror… but quickly these changed. The people reached for their swords, arrows and any other weapon they had to hand. They must believe this to be part of the final trial, Nissa thought to herself. She watched as Gideon rose with the crop of initiates that circled Oketra, his sural in his hand, looking up at her with hatred clearly etched on his rugged face.

Nissa knew she should feel frightened, but being in the reincarnated body of the huge Eldrazi felt a lot like being underwater. She felt numb all over, save the gnawing hunger that seemed to encompass her whole body. She watched as the first wave initiates below leased a volley of arrows at her, which glanced harmlessly off her trailing tentacles. She rose a little higher, ambivalently watching the crowd, trying hard to avoid looking at Chandra. She didn’t want to see the revulsion on the face of the woman she loved directed at her. A second volley of arrows came her way, this time with blazing fiery tips; she quickly moved her tentacles as the tiny pinpricks of fire hit their marks, causing little bites of pain wherever they hit. She saw Gideon say something to the initiate beside him; they both proceeded to push their way through the crowd towards the temple of the God-Pharaoh. 

The crowd seemed to be becoming more emboldened as the minutes went by. Nissa looked back at Nicol Bolas. He seemed amused by the way things were unfolding, one scaly claw on his chin, watching the people as they rallied against the single Eldrazi. He wasn’t concerned though, Nissa realised, he’d seen what Emrakul could do to a plane - his people’s show of defiance before the end was nothing more than a little comedic drama to him. She looked to each of the gods; Kefnet, Rhonas and Bontu were all standing stock still, gazing toward Bolas with the same unseeing vision that Nissa had already witnessed from Kefnet in his own temple. Only Oketra and Hazoret seemed unsure; Hazoret watching her initiates rallying at her feet, looking from them to Bolas and back again. Oketra, on the other hand had picked up her weapon, a gleaming whip, and was squaring up to Nissa along with her crop of fighters.

Nissa watched on as Gideon and his fellow initiate began to climb the temple of the God-Pharaoh. They were aiming straight for her prone elfin body, still laying unconscious on the ground. As they reached her, the golden scaled dress still glinting in the sunlight, the initiate drew his sword, holding it above her body, ready to plunge it down into her chest. Panic cut through the numb haze in her mind. If they killed her real body, then she would be trapped as an Eldrazi forever; she would no longer be in control and who knew what Emrakul would do to the plane if she were to take over. Nissa wanted to shout at Gideon, to scream, to let Gideon and his companion know it was her. Desperately she lashed out with a tentacle, knocking the initiate back. She was horrified to see the latticed scarring appear across his body from the point which she had touched, an extra arm stump bursting from his spine. She recoiled in horror at what she had done, the numbness well and truly gone from her mind, replaced with horror and fear at her own power. She watched as Gideon took the initiate’s place, glaring up at her, his sural switched to a lethally sharp dagger. His skin gleamed and rippled gold and Nissa knew that she could do him no damage, her corrupting touch would just glance off him like water off metal. He raised the dagger, poised to kill her body as it lay unconscious.

‘GIDEON, JUST FUCKING STOP.’ A ball of fire hit the ground in front of Gideon, making him take an involuntary step backwards. Nissa watched Chandra fighting her way through the crowd, pushing and elbowing people out the way, throwing another ball of flame at Gideon’s feet, forcing him further away from Nissa’s comatose body. Liliana and Jace followed her closely behind looking concerned yet determined. 

‘Get back Chandra, you don’t know what you’re dealing with…’ Gideon began as Chandra stormed towards him, eyes and hair ablaze with fury. She crashed into him, her slight body pushing him backwards with the force of her rage.

‘I fucking think I do know what I’m dealing with pal,’ she snarled, squaring up to him. Even though she was considerably smaller than Gideon, he recoiled from her burning anger. ‘Stop trying to kill my fucking girlfriend when all she’s trying to do is stop this motherfucking dragon from screwing this place in the fucking arse.’ 

Liliana and Jace looked simultaneously confused, whilst Gideon raged against Chandra.

‘Now is absolutely not the fucking time for any of this,’ he roared at her, ‘I don’t care what your personal relationship with Nissa is, she has allowed herself to become tainted with Eldrazi corruption and she’s working with Bolas! Killing her elf body will destroy her and save this entire plane!’

‘Uh, neither of you know that for certain’ Jace interjected, ‘We don’t know that Emrakul isn’t holding Nissa hostage and feeding off her planeswalking power! Chandra, we have no idea if Nissa is sentient up there and Gideon, we have no proof that killing her body here would help at all…’

‘How I do love to see you argue…’ The four planeswalkers all turned around, as Nicol Bolas reared up of his hind legs, displaying his heavily armoured chest. They all took a step back, with the exception of Chandra, who stood her ground, hand curled into a flaming fist, her teeth clenched. ‘Sweet that you care so much young Chandra,’ he drawled lazily, ‘Must be harrowing to know that you’ve burned the hearts out of so many Eldrazi beings and now the woman you profess to love has become one of them.’ He leaned closer to her, baring his viciously pointed fangs, ‘But I’m afraid the Nissa you loved is long-gone, only Emrakul is left in her place.’ He nodded at Gideon, ‘Kill the elf’s body if it will make you happy, she doesn’t need it any more, Emrakul is back in her rightful form.’ 

‘Fuck you scales, you’re just a fucking liar!’ Chandra spat in the face of the dragon and he drew his head back, furiously snarling at her.

‘For that insolence I’ll have you destroyed little pyromancer!’ He screamed at her, ‘Emrakul, show this dissenter how we deal with those who oppose us.’ 

‘Get back Chandra!!’ Gideon yelled.

‘Chandra, don’t be foolish!’ Liliana joined in, but Chandra ignored them both walking confidently towards where Nissa was floating. Chandra stopped in front of the huge Eldrazi being. Nissa could see the fear in Chandra’s eyes, the tenseness of her muscles as she prepared herself to fight if necessary. But Nissa could also sense the trust, as if somehow Chandra could see through the hideous exterior to Nissa’s core. She bowed her head as the crowd of Amonkhetian’s, gods and the other planeswalkers all looked on, her copper hair gleaming in the harsh sunlight.

‘Burn it out of the sky Chandra, now’s your chance!’ Bellowed Gideon, but Chandra didn’t flinch. Nissa glided slowly towards the pyromancer. She pulled gently at the sluggish leylines of Amonkhet, carefully teasing a tiny elemental into existence. Her own tiny hummingbird, with bright lime green plumage, flitted in from of Chandra’s eyes for a split second before vanishing, but that was all that was needed. A smile of understanding and joy washed across the human’s freckled face. 

The others stayed back, watching with horror as Nissa gently extended her tentacles out towards Chandra. 

‘Say goodbye to your pyromancer,’ Bolas cackled, ‘I always did like redheads… I hope she grows an extra three!’

Carefully, Nissa wrapped a thin strand around Chandra’s wrist, wincing as a small matrix of latticed scars appeared on the human’s skin. Chandra didn’t flinch, gazing trustingly up into Nissa’s single eye. 

*Can you hear me?* She sent the message down her tentacle and into Chandra’s mind. Chandra smiled and nodded and the rest of the world seemed to drop away around them.

‘Yeah, absolutely. You okay Niss?’ Chandra kept her voice low enough that the others wouldn’t be able to hear them. Nissa brought more of her tentacles down, shielding Chandra from view, creating the illusion to an outsider that she was consuming her, when really she was giving the upmost care to not touching the pyromancer and cause any more damage. 

*How did you know it was still me in here?* She asked, feeling warm and calm, close again to Chandra. 

Chandra shrugged. ‘I guess I wasn’t 100% sure until your elemental… Just had a feeling. I can feel your energy and you feel more or less the same in this body as you did in your other…’ She smiled ruefully, ‘although obviously I have to tell you that I want to make out with you a lot less whilst you’re like this. Obviously I’m all for not judging based on appearance and that, but do you even have a mouth?’ She laughed her light, easy laugh and Nissa felt her spirits soar. ‘But obviously any normal Eldrazi would have smushed this plane to oozy smithereens by now, whereas you were just floating around being all serene and that… I guess you’re just a really bad Eldrazi!’ She laughed. 

*That’s fair,* Nissa replied, feeling for the first time in weeks completely calm. She had been so afraid that when Chandra learnt the truth about her she wouldn’t want anything to do with her; how could she have doubted the passionate, fiery human who cared about her so much? *We do now have to work out how we are going to deal with Bolas… I have a plan, but I want you to think it through before agreeing.*

‘Niss, all your ideas are good ones, I’m happy to trust your judgement.’ She smiled, before pulling a face jokingly, ‘Oh, except for when you didn’t just tell me that you were an eldrazi shapeshifter, that was a bad call. Aaaand that time you put spinach in the banana smoothie. If I’d wanted green in it i’d have just let it go mouldy….’ 

*It’s more that parts of Emrakul are entwined with my mind, rather than me being a shapeshifter; we share these bodies and benefit each other… although I have a plan to separate us.* 

‘Honestly, I would still feel the same way about you even if you were part gremlin,’ Chandra shook her head, ‘You do what you need to do and I will support however you need me to. I don’t think you fully appreciate how behind you I am; I would go to the ends of the earth, any earth, to help you and be with you and make you happy…. you know that right?’

*I do now.* Nissa felt light and airy as Chandra beamed up at her. *Okay, so this is my plan… This body works as a normal Eldrazi body would, so I can siphon energy, absorb mana and also corrupt, should I want to.* Chandra nodded as she listened. *Bolas is powerful, however so is Emrakul… who I should warn you, lives in here with me, just dormant. My plan, should you agree to help me, is to use yours and my energy combined to power up Emrakul as much as possible, I will then set her on Bolas and drop back to my body. The only reason that Emrakul has been able to escape her confinement on Innistrad is due to me carrying part of her with me… once I sever that tie, if I am able to, she and Bolas will be transported back to Innistrad and will remain entrapped there.*

‘Are you sure?’ Chandra asked, a worried from creasing her forehead, ‘Not that I’m doubting you but…’

*I did a lot of research about this on Ravncia after I first became bonded with Emrakul… Trust me, it will work.*

‘Okay…’ Chandra’s frown deepened, ‘But what happens if you aren’t able to sever your tie with Emrakul?’ Nissa did not respond and Chandra fidgeted nervously, ‘What then Nissa?’

*Then I’ll be trapped on Innistrad with them.* She heard Chandra breathe in sharply. *Chandra I don’t think it will come to that… I believe that I know what I’m doing and we have no room for fear and worry at this point.* 

‘Okay,’ Chandra agreed, ‘I trust you Nissa, I trust that you know what you are doing and that you’ll be safe.’ 

 

 

The whole of Amonkhet watched as the Eldrazi rose up into the sky, the pyromancer still connected to it by a single thread. They saw the pyromancer in her golden filigree armour collapse to her knees as the giant creature absorbed her energy, a faint red light pulsing through it’s huge grey body. They witnessed as instead of turning on them as the God-Pharaoh had warned, it turned and latched onto the god himself, as he screamed and thrashed, like a rat caught in a trap. Time seemed to stand still as the huge jellyfish-shaped creature warped into the dragon, both of them mutating horribly and painfully as the sky swirled with magic-induced energy above them. The gold-bronze scales of the dragon were bubbling and twisting, as though he were melting, and a third wing began to grow out of his left eye socket, the eye itself slipping to a position halfway down his throat. The talon-like claws were bending and seeping, and the spiked tail was melting away into a latticed mess of bared bone and muscle. The crowd gasped almost as one as the flailing arm of the destroyed dragon ripped open a hole in the very fabric of the air as he tried to escape.

 

 

In the front of the crowd, a small girl looked on, too young to understand the enormity of what she was seeing before her. She knew that the red lady on the floor in front of her had kindly carried her when she had fallen earlier and that she didn’t want her to come to harm. Unafraid of the impending doom of the eternally locked monsters just in front of her, the little girl toddled over to where her friend was laying motionless. She sat down beside her, again curling her pudgy little hands in the pretty metal clothing that the lady wore. In front of her the monsters teetered on the abyss. 

‘Nissa?’ The red lady had opened her eyes a fraction and the little girl sadly shook her head. ‘Save… Nissa.’ The lady’s eyes, the colour of dark honey, closed again and the little girl felt sad. She just wanted her friend to smile and carry her again. The girl looked around and spotted another figure on the floor… Nissa? She got to her feet and began the arduous walk across the localised war zone on little unsteady legs, her hands out to support herself, the skin freshly healed over from her scrape earlier, looking like no damage had ever been there. She neared the other figure; another lady, of similar age to her friend, with long dark hair and strange but beautiful markings on her face and body. As she got closer, she could see that her ears were a strange shape, pointed, instead of round. Not like Hazoret or Oketra’s pointed animal ears, more subtle than that, pretty. She reached out and touched one of them, but the lady on the floor didn’t stir. She moved a little closer, watching as the dark-haired lady’s chest rose and fell slightly with each shallow breath. The little girl smiled, she was just sleeping. She moved to the lady’s side and shook her, but she didn’t wake. Frowning the little girl put her hand across the sleeping lady’s eyes and closed her own. 

The little girl watched in horror as she saw the dark-haired lady’s mind being tossed between the grasping monster with tentacles and the melting dragon, trying valiantly to free herself from the two thrashing beings and escape back to her own body. The little girl opened her eyes and frowned. She put her little hands either side of the sleeping lady’s head, on her temples, and reached out with her mind back into the thrashing mess of limbs and tentacles before her. She found the hand of the lady, and took hold of it gently, leading her out of harm’s way, back to her own body. The next moment, the hopelessly tangled creature made of dragon and monster was sucked into the abyss, as if her presence in their midst had been the only force stopping them.

The girl sat still by the sleeping lady as the crowd erupted; some cheering, some crying, most confused by the loss of their beloved God-Pharaoh. She watched as the five gods all shook themselves, confused and dazed, as their they had just been released from a darkened room and were emerging into the sunlight for the first time.

‘Chandra… is that you?’ The little girl was surprised when the lady with pointed ears opened her eyes; they were the most beautiful vivid green colour, like brilliantly cut emeralds. Shaking her head, she pointed to where the red lady was slowly standing up. As their eyes locked, the little girl could both see and feel the love and relief that passed between them. The red lady clumsily ran across to the dark-haired lady, throwing herself down at her side, wrapping her arms around her and burying her face in her hair. The little girl smiled and stood up, shaking off her disguise and showing her true form once again to her world.

 

 

Nissa breathed in Chandra’s warm scent as they fell into one another, feeling secure as Chandra hugged her tightly to her chest. She leaned her head back and kissed Chandra, feeling waves of relief and joy wash across her tired body. She felt strange; the feeling of something noisy and dangerous always lurking at the back of her mind had gone, instead her head felt calm, quiet and peaceful. She leaned into the kiss, ignoring everything around them, focusing entirely on herself and the woman who had risked so much to save her. 

‘Hey lovely,’ Chandra whispered when they eventually broke apart, ‘That was pretty epic. How you got rid of Bolas and Emrakul and saved Amonkhet and all that, I mean.’ She considered, ‘Although making out with you is always pretty epic too.’ Nissa smiled and leant her forehead against Chandra’s collarbone. She could have happily stayed there all day, intertwined on the floor, however she was brought out of her reverie by peoples gasps and shouts of surprise.

She turned her head to see a small girl whom she faintly recognised walking up to the God-Pharaoh’s throne. As she walked, the girl’s image shimmered as she grew taller and taller, her body morphing into one of similar stature of the five other gods, all of whom were watching on in astonishment. By the time she reached the base of the destroyed God-Pharaoh’s she stood taller than the other gods, her beautiful eagle-head lifted upwards to the suns.

‘My people,’ she spoke with grace and a gentleness which made everyone instinctively lean in towards her, ‘you will likely not remember me. My name is Oasira, and I am here to rebuild this world, with the help of the kind planeswalkers who have leant us their aid against our enemy, the pretender who claimed to be your God-Pharaoh.’ She gestured across the crowd, ‘We have much rebuilding of trust and civilisation to do, but together we can make Amonkhet whole again.’


	6. As Legend Has it

Nissa watched lazily as a small bird hummed around the trellis of brightly coloured flowers that she had coaxed into existence, entwining themselves around one of the high columns that held up the vaulted ceiling of the balcony room. In front of her, the whole of Amonkhet spread out before her, busy and alive, people bustling in the street below, a cool breeze ruffling the awnings of the sellers’ carts and shops. In the distance she could see the Luxa, bright and blue again, glinting under Amonkhet’s suns. She breathed in deeply, feeling the flow of mana though the plane now coursing strong and unhindered. Beside her, Chandra had laid her head on her shoulder, dozing in the warm sun that drenched the balcony.

 

 

After Oasira had revealed herself, the other five gods had broken free of their reveries, regaining their autonomy once more. Each had taken what remained of their initiate crops and had set about creating new purposes; Kefnet’s followers were the educators, Oketra’s were the lawmakers, Hazoret took medicine and healing, and Rhonas was bequeathed agriculture. Bontu was left with the difficult task of labour - with the spell of the serving mummies broken with Bolas’s defeat, alternatives had to be made. She took on the ambitious task with zeal, her crop of initiates eager to help in any way that they could. 

In the wake of Bolas and Emrakul being dragged from the plane, two more children had toddled from the crowd at Oasira’s feet, shimming and changing, growing into their powerful true forms, Amarinth the Scorpion god and Ekesh the Locust god. They addressed the crowds along with Oasira, detailing how they had gone into hiding after Bolas had taken over, disguising themselves as children, however as Bolas’s charm had brainwashed the residents of Amonkhet, they too forgot their true selves, living out their days as the children they were impersonating. Although their reception from the people of Amonkhet wasn’t the full adoration they had perhaps hoped for, the other five gods welcomed them with open arms, promising to teach them the ways of the plane, and to ultimately assign them a crop of initiates and a function within the new, harmonious Amonkhet. 

After the evening of freedom celebrations had began, Oasira had quietly thanked Nissa for everything she had done; her sacrifice and her bravery, before also thanking Chandra for her humility and her trust. After that, the evening had sped by in a blur of dancing, drinking, celebration and joy. Even Liliana, who hated such unrefined events had joined in, sinking twice as much of Hapatra’s ‘ale’ as Gideon, who she later deemed to be ‘a pathetic man-slab’, before Jace (who was fairly impaired himself) had to gently guide her home. Nissa and Chandra danced into the early hours, Chandra getting gradually more unsteady on her feet with each tankard of ‘ale’ (which Nissa had analysed the natural components of and discovered to be more of a mild hallucinogen than actual alcohol) whilst Nissa stayed relatively sober - elves had a far higher tolerance to such things than their human counterparts. It was when Chandra started hiccuping small fireballs into the crowd that Nissa made their excuses and lead the tipsy pyromancer back to the beautiful guesthouse that Oasira had offered them, adjacent to her temple (previously a storage area for initiates awaiting embalming, under the God-Pharaoh’s reign). Nissa had carefully helped Chandra out of her armour, carefully unbuckling each fastening for her as Chandra hummed out of tune and repeatedly told Nissa how much she loved her, with varying degrees of slurring in her speech. Eventually, Nissa let Chandra tumble into bed, her red hair messy, her limbs immediately tangling themselves in the light cotton sheets of the bed. She was asleep within seconds, snoring loudly, occasionally muttering and hiccuping in her sleep. Nissa had watched her affectionately for a few minutes, before walking onto the balcony, taking a seat and gazing out at the city, still loud and busy from the celebrations.

It was like this that Nissa had stayed all night, watching the suns rise, absentmindedly encouraging the floral trellises to grow until she was sitting in a garden of beautiful smelling flowers. Eventually Chandra had awoken herself enough from her slumber to stagger on unsteady feet to where Nissa was sitting, before collapsing down beside her and laying her head on her shoulder, eyes closed, lips slightly parted in sleep. 

As the suns rose higher in the sky, more and more little birds began to flit around the flowers that she had created, settling on their bright green stems, chirping happily in the sunlight. The cool breeze stayed steady and refreshing, teasing at Chandra’s hair, causing it to blow across her face and tickle her nose. She wrinkled her nose as she slept, snuffling at the annoyance. Nissa smiled, lightly kissing her top of Chandra’s head. 

In the room below Nissa could hear Liliana rising, her heeled boots clicking on the marble floor as she traversed the space. Nissa twitched her ears, listening intently; she could also hear another pair of footsteps below, flat shoes, heavier - an man’s footsteps. She smiled; she was glad Jace had got home safely too. 

In a few minutes she heard a knock at the door of hers and Chandra’s room. She called to let them know the door was open. As soon as the words left her mouth, a messier-than-usual Liliana swept in, with a very worse-for-wear Jace in tow. Liliana’s usually perfect complexion was blotchy, her eyes tired. Jace’s messy hair rivalled Chandra’s, and the dark circles under his eyes hinted at his current state.

‘I honestly have no idea what was in that stuff we drunk last night,’ Jace moaned, taking the spare seat next to Nissa, ‘but I don’t feel even remotely human this morning.’ Chandra’s eyes flickered open at the sound of his voice, squinting in the bright sunlight. She gave a groan and buried her face deeper in Nissa’s shoulder. 

‘I agree,’ Liliana nodded, ‘I think I finally understand what all those death warmed up jokes Chandra makes are about.’ She put her head in her hands, elbows on the balcony table in front of them. 

Nissa laughed lightly, ‘Ah I always forget how delicate humans are when dealing with the aftermath of herbal hallucinogens!’ 

Jace shot her a look of jealously. ‘Ugggh… I hate elves.’ 

Nissa got to her feet, gently manoeuvring Chandra so her head was resting on Liliana’s shoulder instead. She fetched a pan of water and then searched her trellises for the flower she needed. She settled on a few small purple blossoms, picking each of them carefully and dropping them into the pan. She bought it across to the table, setting it down in front of Chandra.

‘Chandra… I need you to boil this tea for me. It’ll make you feel better, I promise’. She gently tousled the pyromancer’s hair, as Chandra opened one eye and let a weak flame leap up from her hand, slowly boiling the water in the pan. Nissa served the tea in small clay cups that she had found in the room. Jace and Chandra both sipped at their drinks and gagged at the bitterness. Only Liliana drank the whole thing in one go, tipping back her head and downing the tea in one gulp. She started to look better almost instantly, the drawn lines of pain on her forehead relaxing and the sparkle returning to her eyes.

‘That tastes truly awful,’ she exclaimed, ‘But it works wonders!’

‘Yes,’ agreed Nissa, ‘I like these flowers very much - on Zendikar we called them Mercius Floriala; Mercy flowers. They taste awful for sure, but they’ll heal everything from a headache to a hangover.’

After seeing Liliana’s recovery, Jace took a deep breath and drank his own tea, pulling a face at the aftertaste. Chandra continued to eye hers suspiciously. Nissa sighed and rose again, disappearing into the dark inner room until she found what she was looking for. She brought back a small vial of powder and sprinkled some in Chandra’s drink. 

‘There. Try that.’ Chandra took a hesitant sip, then drank the whole cup. ‘Cinnamon,’ Nissa explained to Liliana and Jace, ‘Chandra will drink just about anything if it’s Chai flavoured.’ 

 

 

All four sat for a while in silence, enjoying the atmosphere of the newly revived plane. After a a few hours, they spotted Gideon returning, resplendent in the white and gold robes of Oketra’s followers. He disappeared into the front door of their building, and reappeared minutes later with them on the balcony. 

‘Morning all.’ He beamed at them, the sunlight shining on his tan skin, ‘I’ve just been with Oketra and her team, putting the final touches on the new laws on Amonkhet. I’m very proud of how it’s currently looking,’ he beamed, ‘I think this plane is going to be fine to manage itself.’ 

Jace nodded, ‘So that means we should probably think about leaving. I have plenty that I need to do back on Ravnica and no doubt something else will crop up before long.’

Everyone nodded in agreement, except Chandra. ‘Actually Jace, I was thinking Nissa and I could take some time out for a bit and go back to Kaladesh to see my mum y’know. I guess I feel like I want to introduce her properly… seeing as we’re officially together and that now. If that’s okay Nissa?’ She looked shyly across at Nissa, who smiled back happily.

‘Of course Chandra, I’d love nothing more.’ One by one the others all rose to leave, making their preparations for traveling back to Ravnica. 

Nissa stood up, looking again out over the beautiful shining expanse of Amonkhet, healthy, happy and full of life. She breathed in the clear air, feeling herself renewed and fresh, free of the Eldrazi burden that she had been carrying all along. She felt Chandra slip an arm around her waist, following her gaze.

‘I love a good success story,’ she said quietly, ‘Like there are never enough real-life happy endings, don’t you think?’

‘Oh I don’t know,’ Nissa replied warmly, ‘I think for every bad thing there is an equal and opposite good thing waiting around the corner.’ She turned to face Chandra, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, ‘And you and I have both been through our fair share of bad things.’

‘Yeah we’re definitely due some good then!’ Chandra closed her eyes as Nissa leaned in to kiss her. They kissed in the warm sunlight, oblivious to the world around them. When they eventually broke apart, Chandra blushed.

‘Ahaha, I’m never going to get used to actually being able to just kiss you, y’know. It’s amazing. And my mum is going to love you. I mean she already loves you, but she’ll extra love you now. It’s going to be great!’ She burbled happily as they went about tidying the room, Nissa folding the sheets that Chandra had scrunched up on the floor, and Chandra tiding away the tea set. 

Once they were finally ready they stood together again on the centre of the room. Chandra took Nissa’s hand, nodding in readiness.

‘Kaladesh, here we come!’

 

 

The legend of Amonkhet is a very recent one, although as is the way with legends, they tend to get changed along the way. No one can remember a time before the evil God-Pharaoh ruled the plane, however what happened after is taught to every young initiate, to instil in them the virtues of the planeswalkers who helped save the plane. Varying tales are told of how the God-Pharaoh was defeated by a giant flying jellyfish, a girl on fire, a pointy eared creature who could control nature… But one thing remains true. Love and trust saved the plane of Amonkhet; the love of the gods for their people, the love of the people for each other, and the love of the planeswalkers who risked everything to help the plane. To this day, so many years into the future, there is a statue of a flame-haired young woman carrying a small child - Oasira in disguise, many say - and a woman with long dark hair and pointed ears laying down, a strange misshapen angel appearing to leave her body. Celebrations are held where the people burn effigies of the evil dragon pharaoh and children re-inact the famous fight, getting to pretend whether they are the dragon, or whether they are the planes walkers who defeated him. 

Every year, the planeswalkers win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun writing this fic, I really hoped you enjoyed reading it :) 
> 
> Long live happy Nissa & Chandra!


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